IVARS: People
Dr. Walker Smith, Principal Investigator
Dr. Walker Smith Smith was in charge of the overall project, data analysis, and publication. He has recently submitted one of the first IVARS publications to Deep-Sea Research. Within IVARS he is interested in the biogeochemical budgets of the Antarctic region, and the oceanographic processes that control the composition of phytoplankton assemblages.
Scott Polk was the head science technician in the lab of Dr. Walker Smith. He was responsible for IVARS logistics and the day-to-day operation of the research laboratories at VIMS and on-board the IVARS research vessels. He is an original member of the IVARS team and has participated in all the IVARS cruises to date. Scott has since left VIMS.
Jenny Dreyer
Jenny Dreyer began working as a science technician with Dr. Walker Smith after completing her Master's degree in the Department of Biology at the College of William and Mary in August 2004. This was her 2nd year working on the IVARS project and 3rd IVARS cruise. Some of her main responsibilities included analyzing POC, PON, biogenic silica, and processing the IVARS sediment-trap samples.
Amy Shields
Amy Shields was a PhD student with Dr. Walker Smith. This was her 4th year working on the IVARS project and her 7th IVARS cruise. Her dissertation work primarily covered the IVARS core data set, which included biogeochemical budgets, phytoplankton abundance, and primary production in the Ross Sea. Phaeocystis antarctica is her main interest. Blooms of this colonial haptophyte are known to dominate the central region of the Ross Sea polynya. She hoped to learn more about why Phaeocystis forms large colonies, and whether this was caused by grazing or other physical, chemical, or biological factors. Along with her dissertation work, she was the technician for the Autolab, which collected continuous nitrate and silicate measurements underway and also other mooring instruments including the Aquamonitor. She has also spent three seasons at McMurdo Station. Amy has since left VIMS.
Sasha Tozzi was a PhD student with Dr. Walker Smith. This was his 2nd year on the IVARS project and his 5th cruise in the Southern Ocean. His interests are the factors and conditions that lead to phytoplankton blooms in the ocean and their consequences at regional and planetary scales. More specifically he is interested in marine phytoplankton ecology and photophysiology. As part of his dissertation he looked at the role of iron and light on blooms of diatoms and Phaeocystis antarctica in the Ross Sea. At sea he was responsible for deploying and analyzing data from the FRRF (Fast Repetition Rate Fluorometer) and PAM (Pulse Amplitude Modulated Fluorometer) and he was an enthusiastic member of the water collecting and processing team. Part of the experimental work for his dissertation was done in McMurdo Station, where he had been for two seasons between cruises. Last but not least he was the only Italian member of the group. Sasha has since left VIMS.
Dr. Vernon Asper (USM)
Dr. Asper is with the Department of Marine Science at the University of South Mississippi. His research focuses on investigations of particle dynamics in the ocean including their formation, settling characteristics, decomposition, remineralization, and eventual fate. To study these parameters, he uses a suite of imaging technologies and computerized sensors, including the MASCOT (Marine Aggregate Setting Collector and Observation Tube), which investigates the flux and sinking speed of aggregates using a moored sediment trap/camera combination.
Jill Peloquin was a Ph.D. student with Dr. Walker Smith and participated in the first three years of IVARS. She is primarily interested in the environmental factors that control phytoplankton primary production and taxonomic composition and has participated in 10 Southern Ocean cruises. In IVARS, she helped deploy the nitrate and silica analyzers and has collected a multi-year data set of vertically and spatially detailed measurements of photochemical efficiency through the use of pulse amplitude modulated fluorometry. To better constrain the spatial heterogeneity in the Ross Sea, she analyzed remote sensing images (SeaWiFS) to scale up on-board measurements of chlorophyll a and primary production. Together, these tools allowed her to better understand the size and shape of the phytoplankton bloom, its seasonal progress, and how it changes from year to year. Jill has since left VIMS.
David Malmquist
Dr. Malmquist coordinated the IVARS web site, including writing cruise journals. He is the director of VIMS' Communications Department, which includes the Public Relations Office and the Publications Center. The February 2005 IVARS cruise is his first trip to Antarctica.
Grace Henderson
Grace Henderson was a Ph.D. student in the lab of Dr. Deborah Steinberg at VIMS. This was both her 1st cruise in the Southern Ocean and 1st year working with the IVARS project. Some of her main responsibilities during the December 2004 cruise included assisting in processing samples for chlorophyll, HPLC, and particulate organic matter and conducting a microzooplankton grazing experiment with Amy Shields. Grace has since left VIMS.
Kevin Martin
Kevin Martin was a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Vern Asper at the University of Southern Mississippi. He joined IVARS to help Dr. Asper deploy and recover the Calinectes and Xiphias moorings and to assist in filtering the SPM (Suspended Particulate Matter) samples.
Tina Johnson
Ms. Tina Johnson is a former graduate student of Dr. Walker Smith. Her role in the IVARS project was to help collect and prepare nutrient and bacteria samples for later analysis, to preserve phytoplankton samples, and to read chlorophyll samples. Tina has since left VIMS.